Systems and methods for resolving ambiguous terms based on media asset schedule

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are disclosed herein to provide information to a user based on a communication from a user associated with multiple media assets. Based on the schedule of the media assets, one is selected and recommended to the user.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 17/354,295, filed Jun. 22, 2021, which is acontinuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/902,754,filed Jun. 16, 2020, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,076,008, which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/410,388, filed May13, 2019, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,728,351, which is a continuationapplication of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/852,915, filed Dec.22, 2017, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,341,447, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/610,793, filed Jan. 30, 2015, now U.S.Pat. No. 9,854,049. The disclosures of which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties.

BACKGROUND

The sheer number of media assets available to users makes it verydifficult for users to determine which media assets they will be likelyto enjoy, and thus which media assets they should access. To make thedetermination of which media assets to access easier, users rely onmedia guidance applications. Media guidance applications may provideinformation to users in an easily accessed format about media assetsthat the user is likely to enjoy.

The information provided by media guidance applications may be moreuseful to users if the information is personalized to each user'spreferences, enabling users to more easily obtain information aboutmedia assets the users may be interested in. However, a user might findthe task of entering his or her preferences into a media guidanceapplication manually to be tedious and time-consuming. Hence, a user mayappreciate a media guidance application that can provide information tothe user based on the user's communications with other humans.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, methods and systems are disclosed herein for providinginformation to a user based on the user's communications comprising afirst symbol and a second symbol. In some embodiments, a media guidanceapplication may receive a communication from a user. For example, themedia guidance application may receive a user's Short Message Service(SMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), chat message or e-mail toanother user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may identify a firstsymbol and a second symbol in the communication. The symbols may beassociated with phrases in the communication. For example, a user'scommunication may be a text message to a friend that says, “Watching arock band in an outdoor concert was the best!”. The media guidanceapplication may identify that the first symbol is “rock band” and thesecond symbol is “outdoor concert”. The media guidance application maydetermine these symbols using heuristics that allow it to determinephrases relevant to the meaning of a communication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may identify a firstcandidate list of media assets associated with the first symbol. Themedia guidance application may do this by cross-referencing the contentsof a database of media assets with the first symbol and, optionally oradditionally, alternate expressions of the first symbol (e.g.,synonyms). The media assets in the database may be associated withmetadata (e.g., tags) that can be compared to the first symbol and itsalternate expressions. For example, the media guidance application mayidentify “rock band” as a first symbol in the user communication“Watching a rock band in an outdoor concert was the best!”. The mediaguidance application may determine that alternate expressions for thefirst symbol, “rock band”, include “rockers” and “rock musicians”. Themedia guidance application may cross-reference the media assets in adatabase with the symbol “rock band” and its alternate expressions. Thecross-referencing may comprise determining a similarity between thefirst symbol (and, optionally, its alternate expressions), and themetadata associated with one or more media assets in the database. Theresult of this cross-referencing may result in a list of videos of rockbands. This list of videos of rock bands may become the first candidatelist of media assets.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may identify asecond candidate list of media assets associated with the second symbol.This may be done by using a similar process to the one described asbeing used to generate the first candidate list of media assets. Forexample, the media guidance application may identify “outdoor concert”as the second symbol in the above-mentioned user communication. Themedia guidance application may cross-reference the media assets in adatabase with the second symbol “outdoor concert” (and optionally,synonyms to “outdoor concert”). The result of this cross-referencing maybe a list of videos of outdoor concerts. This list of videos of outdoorconcerts may become the second candidate list of media assets.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine a setof media assets identified in both the first candidate list and thesecond candidate list. This may result in a set of media assets that areparticularly relevant to the content of the user's communication. Forexample, the set of media assets may be determined by identifying commonmedia assets in the first candidate list associated with the symbol“rock band” and the second candidate list associated with the symbol“outdoor concert”. This may result in a set of media assets thatincludes videos about rock bands performing during outdoor concerts.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may access a profileof the user. In some embodiments, this profile may be retrieved from adatabase, for example, a database corresponding to a social network thatthe user belongs to. Additionally, this profile may be created bycombining and analyzing data about the user's interactions with themedia guidance application. This profile may comprise user interests,user favorites, user preferences, user demographics, user searchhistory, user media asset access history, user information, and thelike. For example, the media guidance application may access auser-specific page on a social media website (e.g., a Facebook page) ofthe user who sent the text message containing the symbols “rock band”and “outdoor concert”. The media guidance application may modify a userprofile to include information from the user-specific page on the socialmedia website (e.g., the user's Facebook page).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine amedia asset of the set of the media assets that matches an attribute ofthe profile. The attribute of the profile may be any data contained inthe profile. For example, the attribute may be a user's favoritemusician, a user's television viewing history, or a user's date ofbirth. The media guidance application may cross-reference dataassociated with each media asset of the set of media assets to one ormore attributes in the user profile. For example, the user profile ofthe user who sent the text message containing the symbols “rock band”and “outdoor concert” may contain a list of favorite music artists,which may include the band “Red Hot Chili Peppers”. The set of mediaassets identified by the media guidance application may include a videofrom an outdoor rock concert by this band. The media guidanceapplication may determine that the video of the outdoor concert matchesan attribute of the profile, namely that the band performing at theoutdoor concert is the same as one of the user's favorite bands.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may provide the userinformation relating to the media asset. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may provide this information in response toreceiving the communication from the user. For example, when the usersends a text message to a friend stating “Watching a rock band in anoutdoor concert was the best!”, the media guidance application mayresponsively generate for display a pop-up on the user's mobile devicewith information about prices for tickets to an upcoming “Red Hot ChiliPeppers” concert, as well as the weather on the day of the concert. Insome embodiments, the media guidance application may replace defaultcontent with targeted content based on this information. For example,the user may be browsing a website, when the user will notice anadvertisement for an upcoming “Red Hot Chili Peppers” concert instead ofa default advertisement that would usually appear.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generate the setof media assets based on a relationship between the first symbol and thesecond symbol. This relationship may be based on a common feature of thefirst symbol and the second symbol. For example, if a user communicationsays “Watching a rock band in an outdoor concert was the best!”, themedia guidance application may determine that a first symbol “rock band”and a second symbol “outdoor concert” are related to each other as theyare both associated with music. The media guidance application mayprovide information to the user about media assets associated with musicbased on the relationship between the first symbol and the secondsymbol. The media guidance application may generate candidate lists thatthe first and second symbol may define that include only media assetsrelated to music. Hence, the media asset that matches an attribute ofthe user profile will be related to music. This media asset may be avideo of a rock band performing an outdoor concert.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may identify a mediaasset that is related to the determined media asset, and may recommendthe related media asset to the user. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine, using the symbols “New York Times Bestseller”and “wife disappears”, that the media asset is the book “Gone Girl”. Themedia guidance application may then identify other books by the sameauthor and recommend these books to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine acorrelation value for each media asset in the set of media assets withrespect to an attribute of the profile. The correlation value of a mediaasset may correspond to a value generated by comparing one or more tagsassociated with a media asset to one or more attributes of the profile.The correlation may describe the likelihood of a tag of a media assetbeing similar to at least one attribute of the profile. A media assetwith a high correlation may have several tags that are closely relatedto an attribute of the profile. The media guidance application mayprovide information related to the media asset with the highestcorrelation value to the user. For example, the user's profile mayindicate an interest in “American rock music”. A user e-mail may state“I can't stop listening to The Beatles and The Doors”. The mediaguidance application may identify as the first and second symbolrespectively the bands “The Beatles” and “The Doors”. The set of mediaassets identified by the media guidance application may include music bythe British rock band “The Beatles” and music by the American rock band“The Doors”. The media guidance application may associate music by TheBeatles with a lower correlation value than the music by the The Doorsas the latter may have two tags (i.e. “American” and “rock music”) thatmatch the attribute of the profile while the former may only have one(i.e., “rock music”).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine alocation of the user. The media guidance application may determine thelocation by extracting location information from a user profile, or byusing GPS data associated with a user device. The media guidanceapplication may then identify a vendor based on the media asset and thelocation of the user. The media guidance application may includeinformation about the vendor in the information provided to the user.For example, the media guidance application may receive a text messagefrom a user that states “Watching a rock band in an outdoor concert wasthe best!” and determine that the media asset related to the context ofthis communication is a video of an outdoor concert by the “Red HotChili Peppers” using any manner described above or below. The mediaguidance application may determine the user's location using a GPS ofthe user's cell phone. The media guidance application may identify thata music shop has inventory that includes albums created by the “Red HotChili Peppers”. The media guidance application may further determinethat the distance from the user location to the vendor is less than athreshold distance, which may be specified by the user or may bedetermined automatically. The media guidance application mayresponsively include information about the music shop in the informationprovided to the user.

Methods and systems are also disclosed herein for providing informationto a user based on the user's communications comprising a symbol with aplurality of candidate interpretations. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may receive a communication from a user asdescribed above. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayidentify a symbol that is subject to a plurality of candidateinterpretations. The media guidance application may identify theplurality of candidate interpretations by querying a database for eachknown symbol interpretation, and retrieving candidate interpretationsthat match the symbol. For example, the media guidance application mayreceive a text message stating “I can't wait to see Michelle togethertonight!”. The media guidance symbol may determine that the user's textmessage contains the symbol “Michelle”. The media guidance system mayfurther determine that the symbol “Michelle” could refer to either theFirst Lady Michelle Obama or the actress Michelle Rodriguez. The mediaguidance application may thereby identify “Michelle Obama” and “MichelleRodriguez” as candidate interpretations of the symbol “Michelle”.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may compare anattribute of the profile to each candidate interpretation of theplurality of candidate interpretations. The attribute of the profile mayinclude any of the types of information described above. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may compare one or moreattributes of a profile to each candidate interpretation of theplurality of candidate interpretations. For example, after determiningthat a user text message contains the symbol “Michelle”, the mediaguidance application may determine that the user's profile contains alist of interests, of whom “First Ladies” is one. The media guidanceapplication may compare this attribute of “First Ladies” to eachcandidate interpretation of the plurality of candidate interpretations.The media guidance application may further compare this attribute to oneor more alternate expression associated with each candidateinterpretation. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that an alternate expression for the candidate interpretation“Michelle Obama” is “First Lady”. The media guidance application maycompare this alternate expression to the user profile attribute of“First Ladies”.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine ameaning of the symbol based on the comparison. The media guidanceapplication may determine the meaning based on determining that the userprofile attribute is associated with a candidate interpretation or analternate expression of a candidate interpretation. For example, basedon comparing the user profile attribute “First Ladies” to the alternateexpression for “Michelle Obama” of “First Lady”, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the meaning of the symbol “Michelle” isMichelle Obama. Determining the meaning of the symbol may enable themedia guidance application to provide relevant information to the user.If the user is interested in Michelle Obama, the user will probably notappreciate receiving a recommendation for a movie starring the actressMichelle Rodriguez.

Alternatively, if the user likes the actress Michelle Rodriguez, theuser will probably not want to receive news about the First Lady.Determining a meaning for the symbol may allow the media guidanceapplication to provide recommendations that are relevant to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may update theprofile to include information based on the determined meaning. Forexample, based on the determination of a meaning for the symbol“Michelle”, the media guidance application may update the list ofinterests in the user's profile to include an interest in MichelleObama. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may recommenda media asset to the user based on the determined meaning. For example,the media guidance application may recommend videos of Michelle Obama'spast televised interviews to the user. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may provide information in response to the usersending the communication. For example, the media guidance applicationmay generate an overlay of a video of Michelle Obama on top of theuser's communication in response to receiving the user's communication.In some embodiments, the media guidance application may replace defaultcontent with targeted content. For example, the user may be presentedwith political advertisements starring Michelle Obama instead of defaultpolitical advertisements when watching television.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine themeaning of the symbol by determining a correlation value for eachcandidate interpretation of the plurality of candidate interpretations.As described above, the correlation value of a candidate interpretationmay correspond to a value generated by comparing the candidateinterpretation and its alternate expressions to the attribute of theprofile. The media guidance application may provide information relatedto the candidate interpretation with the highest correlation value. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that a user e-mailstates “Kevin is such a versatile actor”. The media guidance applicationmay determine that the symbol “Kevin” may correspond to candidateinterpretations of actor Kevin Costner and actor Kevin Bacon, amongother actors. The media guidance application may determine that the userprofile comprises a list of recently watched movies which includes themovie “Waterworld”, starring Kevin Costner, and may determine that analternate expression for the candidate interpretation “Kevin Costner”may be “lead actor in Waterworld.” The media guidance application maythen compare the alternative expression to the user attribute of“Waterworld” and find the two attributes to be very similar. On theother hand, the media guidance application may determine that thecandidate interpretation “Kevin Bacon” is not similar to the userattribute “Waterworld” as the actor Kevin Bacon is not the lead actor inthe movie “Waterworld”. Based on this comparison, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the candidate interpretation of KevinCostner has a higher correlation value than the candidate interpretationof Kevin Bacon.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine alocation of the user as described above. The media guidance applicationmay identify a vendor based on the location of the user and thedetermined meaning. For example, based on the results of comparing analternate expression for “Kevin Costner” and a user profile attribute,the media guidance application may determine that the user symbol“Kevin” means the actor Kevin Costner. The media guidance applicationmay determine the user's home address using information provided by theuser on a social networking website. The media guidance application mayidentify a movie rental store near the user's home that has DigitalVideo Discs (DVDs) of Kevin Costner movies in stock. The media guidanceapplication may provide information about the identified vendor to theuser.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may associate eachof the candidate interpretations with a media asset. For example, if themedia guidance application identifies “Star Wars” as a symbol in atranscription of a user voicemail, the candidate interpretations mayinclude the movies in the “Star Wars” series, with each candidateinterpretation being associated with a respective movie in the series.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a display screen generated by amedia guidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 2 shows another illustrative example of a display screen generatedby a media guidance application in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative embodiment of user equipment on which acommunication from the user and information provided by the mediaguidance application is displayed in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in providinginformation to a user based on a first symbol and a second symbol inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in providinginformation to a user based on a symbol that is subject to a pluralityof candidate interpretations in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure; and

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for providing information toa user based on a communication including two symbols, at least one ofwhich may have multiple candidate interpretations, in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Methods and systems are disclosed herein for providing information to auser based on the user's communications comprising a first symbol and asecond symbol. In some embodiments, a media guidance application mayreceive a communication from a user. For example, the media guidanceapplication may receive a user's Short Message Service (SMS), MultimediaMessaging Service (MMS), chat message or e-mail to another user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may identify a firstsymbol and a second symbol in the communication. The symbols may beassociated with phrases in the communication. For example, a user'scommunication may be a text message to a friend that says, “Watching arock band in an outdoor concert was the best!”. The media guidanceapplication may identify that the first symbol is “rock band” and thesecond symbol is “outdoor concert”. The media guidance application maydetermine these symbols using heuristics that allow it to determinephrases relevant to the meaning of a communication.

Although the media guidance application is described above asidentifying a first symbol and a second symbol, the media guidanceapplication may identify any number of symbols and use them in the belowembodiments. For example, the media guidance application may identify afirst symbol, a second symbol, and a third symbol in a usercommunication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may identify a firstcandidate list of media assets associated with the first symbol. Themedia guidance application may do this by cross-referencing the contentsof a database of media assets with the first symbol and, optionally oradditionally, alternate expressions of the first symbol (e.g.,synonyms). The media assets in the database may be associated withmetadata (e.g., tags) that can be compared to the first symbol and itsalternate expressions. For example, the media guidance application mayidentify “rock band” as a first symbol in the user communication“Watching a rock band in an outdoor concert was the best!”. The mediaguidance application may determine that alternate expressions for thefirst symbol, “rock band”, include “rockers” and “rock musicians”. Themedia guidance application may cross-reference the media assets in adatabase with the symbol “rock band” and its alternate expressions. Thecross-referencing may comprise determining a similarity between thefirst symbol (and, optionally, its alternate expressions), and themetadata associated with one or more media assets in the database. Theresult of this cross-referencing may result in a list of videos of rockbands. This list of videos of rock bands may become the first candidatelist of media assets.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may identify asecond candidate list of media assets associated with the second symbol.This may be done by using a similar process to the one described asbeing used to generate the first candidate list of media assets. Forexample, the media guidance application may identify “outdoor concert”as the second symbol in the above-mentioned user communication. Themedia guidance application may cross-reference the media assets in adatabase with the second symbol “outdoor concert” (and optionally,synonyms to “outdoor concert”). The result of this cross-referencing maybe a list of videos of outdoor concerts. This list of videos of outdoorconcerts may become the second candidate list of media assets.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine a setof media assets identified in both the first candidate list and thesecond candidate list. This may result in a set of media assets that areparticularly relevant to the content of the user's communication. Forexample, the set of media assets may be determined by identifying commonmedia assets in the first candidate list associated with the symbol“rock band” and the second candidate list associated with the symbol“outdoor concert”. This may result in a set of media assets thatincludes videos about rock bands performing during outdoor concerts.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application identified mayidentify any number of candidate lists of media assets, such that eachcandidate list is associated with an identified symbol. For example, ifa media guidance application identifies three symbols in a usercommunication, the media guidance application may identify threecandidate lists of media assets, where each list is associated with oneof the three identified symbols. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may determine a set of media assets identified in all thecandidate lists of media assets. For example, if the media guidanceapplication generates three candidate lists of media assets, then themedia guidance application may determine a set of media assetsidentified in all three lists.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may access a profileof the user. In some embodiments, this profile may be retrieved from adatabase, for example, a database corresponding to a social network thatthe user belongs to. Additionally, this profile may be created bycombining and analyzing data about the user's interactions with themedia guidance application. This profile may comprise user interests,user favorites, user preferences, user demographics, user searchhistory, user media asset access history, user information, and thelike. For example, the media guidance application may access auser-specific page on a social media website (e.g., a Facebook page) ofthe user who sent the text message containing the symbols “rock band”and “outdoor concert”. The media guidance application may modify a userprofile to include information from the user-specific page on the socialmedia website (e.g., the user's Facebook page).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine amedia asset of the set of the media assets that matches an attribute ofthe profile. The attribute of the profile may be any data contained inthe profile. For example, the attribute may be a user's favoritemusician, a user's television viewing history, or a user's date ofbirth. The media guidance application may cross-reference dataassociated with each media asset of the set of media assets to one ormore attributes in the user profile. For example, the user profile ofthe user who sent the text message containing the symbols “rock band”and “outdoor concert” may contain a list of favorite music artists,which may include the band “Red Hot Chili Peppers”. The set of mediaassets identified by the media guidance application may include a videofrom an outdoor rock concert by this band. The media guidanceapplication may determine that the video of the outdoor concert matchesan attribute of the profile, namely that the band performing at theoutdoor concert is the same as one of the user's favorite bands.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may provide the userinformation relating to the media asset. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may provide this information in response toreceiving the communication from the user. For example, when the usersends, using user input interface 310, a text message to a friendstating “Watching a rock band in an outdoor concert was the best!”, themedia guidance application may responsively generate for display apop-up on the user's mobile device's display 312 with information aboutprices for tickets to an upcoming “Red Hot Chili Peppers” concert, aswell as the weather on the day of the concert. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may replace default content with targetedcontent based on this information. For example, the user may be browsinga website, when the user will notice an advertisement for an upcoming“Red Hot Chili Peppers” concert instead of a default advertisement thatwould usually appear.

Methods and systems are also disclosed herein for providing informationto a user based on the user's communications comprising a symbol with aplurality of candidate interpretations. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may receive a communication from a user asdescribed above. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayidentify a symbol that is subject to a plurality of candidateinterpretations. The media guidance application may identify theplurality of candidate interpretations by querying a database for eachknown symbol interpretation, and retrieving candidate interpretationsthat match the symbol. For example, the media guidance application mayreceive a text message stating “I can't wait to see Michelle togethertonight!”. The media guidance symbol may determine that the user's textmessage contains the symbol “Michelle”. The media guidance system mayfurther determine that the symbol “Michelle” could refer to either theFirst Lady Michelle Obama or the actress Michelle Rodriguez. The mediaguidance application may thereby identify “Michelle Obama” and “MichelleRodriguez” as candidate interpretations of the symbol “Michelle”.

Although the media guidance application is described above asidentifying a first symbol subject to a plurality of candidateinterpretations, the media guidance application may identify any numberof symbols. For example, the media guidance application may identify afirst symbol subject to a first plurality of candidate interpretationsand a second symbol subject to a second plurality of candidateinterpretations. In some embodiments, the media guidance application maydetermine the meaning of a first symbol, and then determine the meaningof a second symbol, and so on until the meaning of all symbols subjectto a plurality of candidate interpretations has been determined.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may compare anattribute of the profile to each candidate interpretation of theplurality of candidate interpretations. The attribute of the profile mayinclude any of the types of information described above. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may compare one or moreattributes of a profile to each candidate interpretation of theplurality of candidate interpretations. For example, after determiningthat a user text message contains the symbol “Michelle”, the mediaguidance application may determine that the user's profile contains alist of interests, of whom “First Ladies” is one. The media guidanceapplication may compare this attribute of “First Ladies” to eachcandidate interpretation of the plurality of candidate interpretations.The media guidance application may further compare this attribute to oneor more alternate expression associated with each candidateinterpretation. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that an alternate expression for the candidate interpretation“Michelle Obama” is “First Lady”. The media guidance application maycompare this alternate expression to the user profile attribute of“First Ladies”.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine ameaning of the symbol based on the comparison. The media guidanceapplication may determine the meaning based on determining that the userprofile attribute is associated with a candidate interpretation or analternate expression of a candidate interpretation. For example, basedon comparing the user profile attribute “First Ladies” to the alternateexpression for “Michelle Obama” of “First Lady”, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the meaning of the symbol “Michelle” isMichelle Obama. Determining the meaning of the symbol may enable themedia guidance application to provide relevant information to the user.If the user is interested in the Michelle Obama, the user will probablynot appreciate receiving a recommendation for a movie starring theactress Michelle Rodriguez. Alternatively, if the user likes the actressMichelle Rodriguez, the user will probably not want to receive newsabout the First Lady. Determining a meaning for the symbol may allow themedia guidance application to provide recommendations that are relevantto the user.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, advertisements, chat sessions, socialmedia, applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), advertisement information (e.g., text, images, media clips,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 1-2 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 1-2 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 1-2 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 1 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 100arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 100 may include grid 102 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 104, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 106, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 102 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 108, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 110. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 110 may be provided inprogram information region 112. Region 112 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 102 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 114, recorded content listing 116, andInternet content listing 118. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 100 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings114, 116, and 118 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 102 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 102. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 120. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 120.)

Display 100 may also include video region 122, advertisement 124, andoptions region 126. Video region 122 may allow the user to view and/orpreview programs that are currently available, will be available, orwere available to the user. The content of video region 122 maycorrespond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed ingrid 102. Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referredto as picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and theirfunctionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat.No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included inother media guidance application display screens of the embodimentsdescribed herein.

Advertisement 124 may provide an advertisement for content that,depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscriptionprogramming), is currently available for viewing, will be available forviewing in the future, or may never become available for viewing, andmay correspond to or be unrelated to one or more of the content listingsin grid 102. Advertisement 124 may also be for products or servicesrelated or unrelated to the content displayed in grid 102. Advertisement124 may be selectable and provide further information about content,provide information about a product or a service, enable purchasing ofcontent, a product, or a service, provide content relating to theadvertisement, etc. Advertisement 124 may be targeted based on a user'sprofile/preferences, monitored user activity, the type of displayprovided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement bases.

While advertisement 124 is shown as rectangular or banner shaped,advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and locationin a guidance application display. For example, advertisement 124 may beprovided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid102. This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement. Inaddition, advertisements may be overlaid over content or a guidanceapplication display or embedded within a display. Advertisements mayalso include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other typesof content described above. Advertisements may be stored in a userequipment device having a guidance application, in a database connectedto the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming mediaservers), or on other storage means, or a combination of theselocations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application isdiscussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan. 17, 2003; Ward, IIIet al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29, 2004; and Schein et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14, 2002, which are herebyincorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It will beappreciated that advertisements may be included in other media guidanceapplication display screens of the embodiments described herein.

Options region 126 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 126 may be part of display 100 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 126 may concern features related to program listings in grid 102or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 4 . Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 2 . Video mosaic display 200 includes selectable options 202 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 200, television listings option 204 isselected, thus providing listings 206, 208, 210, and 212 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 200 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 208 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 214 and text portion 216.Media portion 214 and/or text portion 216 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 214 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 200 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 206 islarger than listings 208, 210, and 212), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Dec. 29, 2005,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 3 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 300. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 4 .User equipment device 300 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 302. I/O path 302 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 304, which includesprocessing circuitry 306 and storage 308. Control circuitry 304 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 302. I/O path 302 may connect control circuitry 304 (andspecifically processing circuitry 306) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 3 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 304 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 306. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 308). Specifically, control circuitry 304 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 304 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 304 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 304 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 4 ). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 308 thatis part of control circuitry 304. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 308 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 4 , may be used to supplementstorage 308 or instead of storage 308.

Control circuitry 304 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 304 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 300. Circuitry 304 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 308 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 300, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 308.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 304 using user inputinterface 310. User input interface 310 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 312 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300. For example, display 312 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 312may be integrated with or combined with display 312. Display 312 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 312 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 312 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 312.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry304. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 304.Speakers 314 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 312 may be played throughspeakers 314. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers314.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 300. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage308), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 304 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 308 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 304 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 310. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 310 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 300 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 300. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 304 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 304) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 300. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 300.Equipment device 300 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 310 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 300 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 310.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 300 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 304). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 304 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 304. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 304. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 300 of FIG. 3 can be implemented in system 400 ofFIG. 4 as user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404,wireless user communications device 406, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 3 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or awireless user communications device 406. For example, user televisionequipment 402 may, like some user computer equipment 404, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 404 may, like some television equipment 402, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 404, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 406.

In system 400, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 4 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 402, user computer equipment 404, wireless user communicationsdevice 406) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 414.Namely, user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, andwireless user communications device 406 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 414 via communications paths 408, 410, and 412, respectively.Communications network 414 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 408, 410, and 412 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 412 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 4 it is awireless path and paths 408 and 410 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired).

Communications with the user equipment devices may be provided by one ormore of these communications paths, but are shown as a single path inFIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 408, 410, and 412, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 414.

System 400 includes content source 416 and media guidance data source418 coupled to communications network 414 via communication paths 420and 422, respectively. Paths 420 and 422 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 408, 410,and 412.

Communications with the content source 416 and media guidance datasource 418 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths, butare shown as a single path in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 416 and 418 withuser equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 are shown as throughcommunications network 414, in some embodiments, sources 416 and 418 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 408, 410, and 412.

Content source 416 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 416 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 416 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 416 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 418 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 418may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 418 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 418 mayprovide user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions and advertisements thatentice the user to keep the particular service or source indicated bythe score as one to which the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 308, and executedby control circuitry 304 of a user equipment device 300. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 304 of user equipment device 300and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 418) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 418), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 418 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices402, 404, and 406 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 400 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 4 .

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 414.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/179,410, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 416 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 402 and user computer equipment 404may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 406 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 414. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 416 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 418. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wirelessuser communications device 406. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 404 or wireless usercommunications device 406 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 404. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 414. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 3 .

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative embodiment of user equipment on which acommunication from the user and information provided by the mediaguidance application is displayed in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure. User equipment 500, which is shown with two alternativedisplays, is demonstrated as a touchscreen smartphone device, but may beimplemented on any user equipment device, such as user televisionequipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or wireless usercommunications device 406.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive acommunication, such as communication 502, from a user. As referred toherein, a communication may include any transmission of information fromone user to another. For example, a communication may include an e-mail,text message, chat message, a picture, a voice message, a video, a SMS(Short Message Service), a MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), a tweet,a status update on a social network and a recommendation. Acommunication may also comprise any transmission of information througha communications network 414 from one user to multiple users.Communication 502 may be created by a user through the user inputinterface 310 on any of the user devices 402, 404, and/or 406, and maybe displayed by way of display 312. For example, a media guidanceapplication may receive communication in the form of a communication 502stating “Watching a rock band in an outdoor concert was the best!” thatis sent by a user to a friend.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may identify, usingprocessing circuitry 306, a first symbol and a second symbol ofcommunication 502. As referred to herein, a symbol may include anyportion of communication 502. For example, the symbol may be a phrasefrom an e-mail, SMS, or MMS. The symbol may be a video clip from a videoor a voice clip from a voice message. The symbol may be a textualrepresentation of a portion of a video or a voice message. The mediaguidance application may identify a symbol that represents a subject ofcommunication 502, or is a relevant phrase in communication 502.

A media guidance application may determine a first symbol and a secondsymbol by searching for certain keywords in a user communication 502. Insome embodiments, the keywords may comprise any proper nouns in the usercommunication 502, including names of people and names of places. Forexample, a media guidance application may receive a user text message “Iwant to see the Sphinx in Egypt” and identify a first symbol “Sphinx”and second symbol “Egypt”. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may identify a first symbol and a second symbol based on thefrequency of symbols in the user communication 502. For example, a mediaguidance application may receive an e-mail reciting a recipe for makingcake in which the words “eggs” and “flour” are mentioned often, andidentify a first symbol “eggs” and a second symbol “flour”. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may use information frommedia guidance data source 418 to identify a first symbol and a secondsymbol. For example, the media guidance data source 418 may provideinformation to the media guidance application that the television shows“24” and “Lost” are extremely popular, and the media guidanceapplication may use this information to identify in a user text message“I can't believe 24 and Lost are off-air now” a first symbol “24” and asecond symbol “Lost”.

The media guidance application may use proximity to determine the firstsymbol and the second symbol. As referred to herein, proximity refers tothe distance between an occurrence of the first symbol in thecommunication 502 and an occurrence of the second symbol in thecommunication 502. Proximity may be measured in a manner specific to themedium of communication. For example, proximity for e-mail messages maybe measured by determining if the first symbol and the second symboloccur in the same sentence or in the same paragraph of communication502, while proximity for voice messages may be measured by determiningthat the first symbol is spoken within a certain time duration of thesecond symbol. The media guidance application may use a thresholdproximity to identify symbols that are within a certain distance of eachother. As referred to herein, a threshold proximity between two symbolsmay refer to the fact that two text symbols occur within a pre-specifieddistance of each other. For example, the media guidance application maydefine a threshold such that two text symbols must be in the samesentence, or in the same paragraph. A threshold proximity may requirespoken symbols from a voice message or visual symbols from a videomessage to be within a certain time of each other. For example, themedia guidance application may define a threshold such that two spokensymbols in a voice mail must be spoken within five seconds of eachother. The media guidance application may determine that the firstsymbol and the second symbol refer to the same media asset based on theproximity of the first symbol and the second symbol in the communication502 being above the threshold proximity. For example, the media guidanceapplication may use processing circuitry 306 to determine that the usercommunication 502 “Watching a rock band in an outdoor concert was thebest!” contains a first symbol “rock band” and a second symbol “outdoorconcert” in the same sentence. The media guidance application may selectthese two symbols based on a threshold proximity of symbols in asentence, for example, a threshold specifying to identify symbols thatoccur in the same sentence. Because the two identified symbols appear inthe same sentence of the user communication 502, the media guidanceapplication may determine that both symbols refer to an event where arock band performed an outdoor concert.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may identifyalternate expressions for the identified symbols. As referred to herein,alternate expressions refer to any phrase that has the same generalmeaning as a symbol but does not consist of the same words as thesymbol. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may query aninternal database in storage 308 that contains alternate expressions forvarious symbols. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayuse communications network 414 to access a dictionary or a referencedocument stored remotely (e.g., at media guidance data source 418) todetermine alternate expressions for a symbol. For example, the mediaguidance application may identify the first symbol “rock band” and thenidentify its alternate expressions “rock musicians” and “rockers”querying a an online dictionary through communications network 414.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may identify, usingprocessing circuitry 306, a first candidate list of media assets thatthe first symbol may define. The media guidance application may use adatabase of media assets to identify a subset of media assets that matcha characteristic of the first symbol. Each media asset in the databaseof media assets may be associated with metadata that describes the mediaasset. For example, the metadata may comprise tags, or a description ofthe media asset that includes information about a media asset's actors,directors, producers, title, release date, revenue, reviews, and thelike. As referred to herein, the term “tags” refers to content andmetadata identifiers associated with the media assets. The tags may begenerated by the media guidance application by using tags added by usersand editors to media content source 416 and media guidance data source418. The media guidance application may parse information created byusers for media assets to create tags. For example, the media guidanceapplication may create tags of “awesome”, “thrilling”, and “spy” withJames Bond movies in the media asset database based on phrases commonlyfound in user reviews of James Bond movies. The media guidanceapplication may use information provided by users to associate tags withcertain portions of a media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may associate the ending of a James Bond movie with the tag“exciting” based on user reactions to the end of the movie. The mediaguidance application may parse these reactions from user-providedinformation such as hash tags, movie reviews, comments on online forums,and the like.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may automaticallyassign tags to media assets. The media guidance application may add tagsto the media asset that contain the title of the media asset, itsparticipants, its year of creation, and other such data. The mediaguidance application may receive this information from media guidancedata source 418.

The process of identifying the subset of media assets may includecomparing the tags associated with each media asset with the firstsymbol. Additionally, the media guidance application may compare thetags associated with each media asset to alternate expressions of thefirst symbol. A media asset may be added to an identified subset ofmedia assets if one or more of the tags associated with the media assetmatch the symbol on one of its alternate expressions. The identifiedsubset of media assets may be the first candidate list of media assets.In some embodiments, the database may be stored locally as part of themedia guidance application on the storage circuitry 308. In someembodiments, the database may be stored on a remote location like themedia guidance data source 418 that is accessible by the media guidanceapplication. The database may be automatically updated to ensure itcontains information about media assets as they become available. Forexample, using the first symbol “rock band” from the user communication502 “Watching a rock band in an outdoor concert was the best!”, themedia guidance application may access a database of videos to determinea subset of videos that the first symbol “rock band” may define. Eachvideo in the database may contain tags that describe its contents. Themedia guidance application may create a subset of all videos whose tagsrefer to rock bands. This subset of videos may be a first candidate listof media assets.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may identify asecond candidate list of media assets that the second symbol may define.The media guidance application may follow a similar process to createboth the first candidate list and the second candidate list. Forexample, using the second symbol “outdoor concert” from the user textmessage, the media guidance application may create a second candidatelist of videos associated with tags of “outdoor concert” that the secondsymbol may define.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine, usingprocessing circuitry 306, a set of media assets identified in both thefirst candidate list and the second candidate list. By determining mediaassets common to both candidate lists, the media guidance applicationmay determine a set of media assets closely related to the subject ofthe user's communication 502. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine a set of media assets identified in both thefirst candidate list associated with the first symbol “rock band” andthe second candidate list associated with the second symbol “outdoorconcert”. This set of media assets may comprise videos of outdoorconcerts by rock bands. This set of media assets may be more relevant tothe subject of the user's communication 502 than videos solely aboutrock bands or movies videos about outdoor concerts.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may access a profileof the user. The profile may be stored in a remote location (e.g., mediaguidance data source 418), and the media guidance application may accessit using communications network 414. The profile may be stored locallyin storage circuitry 308, and the media guidance application may accessit using processing circuitry 306. As referred to herein, a profile ofthe user refers to a collection of information about the user. Forexample, a profile may include a list of television shows the user haswatched, information provided by the user on a social networkingwebsite, a list of the user's interests on a website, a list of ratingsthe user has given to different media assets, and the like. Furtherdiscussion regarding profiles may be found above and below. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may access a profile of theuser that the user has created, such as information used to populate aprofile page on a social networking website through communicationsnetwork 414. In some embodiments, the media guidance application maycreate or update a user profile stored in storage circuitry 308 bymonitoring a user's activity; for example, the media guidanceapplication may create a list of movies and television shows the userhas accessed in the past year. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may create or update a user profile by combining user datafrom many sources such as social networking websites and the user'sbrowsing history on any of user devices 402, 404, and/or 406. Forexample, the media guidance application may create a user profile bycombining data associated with user interests, user favorites, userpreferences, user demographics, user search history, user media assetaccess history, and user information. In some embodiments, a user may beable to access and modify the user profile used by the media guidanceapplication using a user device 402, 404, and/or 406. A user may accessthe user profile by entering identifying information, such as a usernameand password, into the user input interface 310 to prove authorization.The user may then add, delete, and view attributes of the user profile.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine, usingprocessing circuitry 306, a media asset of the set of media assets thatmatches an attribute of the profile. The media guidance application maydetermine that a media asset matches an attribute of the profile if themedia asset is associated with a tag that is similar to the attribute ofthe profile. The media guidance application may determine thissimilarity by comparing the words in the tag and the attribute. Themedia guidance application may determine a media asset which may berelevant to the user's interests as it may be related to both thecontent of the user's communication 502 and one or more attributes ofthe user profile. For example, the media guidance application may accessa list of the user's favorite music artists and determine that the userhas listed “Red Hot Chili Peppers” as a favorite artist. The mediaguidance application may determine that the attribute “Red Hot ChiliPeppers” hence matches an attribute of the user profile. In someembodiments, if the media guidance application determines that none ofthe media assets in the set of media assets match an attribute of theuser profile, the media guidance application may select a differentattribute and determine if any media assets in the set of media assetsmatch that different attribute. The media guidance application maycontinue selecting different attributes of the user's profile until amedia asset has been determined.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may select anattribute from a plurality of attributes from a profile of the userbased on the time of update of the attribute. For example, if a userprofile comprises a list of movies watched by the user, the mediaguidance application may select a recently watched movie as theattribute to be cross-referenced with the set of media assets instead ofa movie watched long ago. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may select an attribute based on the frequency of occurrenceof the attribute. For example, a user profile may comprise a list oftelevision shows recorded by the user. The media guidance applicationmay select a show that is frequently recorded by the viewer as theattribute instead of a show that is rarely recorded by the user. In someembodiments, an attribute may be randomly or pseudo-randomly selected bythe media guidance application from the profile of the user. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may randomly select anattribute in response to determining that another method of selecting anattribute resulted in an unclear determination of which attribute toselect.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may provideinformation relating to the media asset to the user. As referred toherein, providing information may include any means of presentinginformation to a user on any user device. For example, providinginformation may comprise providing a display 312 through an overlay,pop-up 504, or notification. Providing information may also comprisecreating an advertisement on a webpage, embedding a link in the user'scommunication 502, or generating for display a commercial or otheradvertisement during video-on-demand or broadcast programming on display312. Providing information may also comprise providing informationthrough a voice message or video that uses display 312 and/or speakers314. In some embodiments, the information may be provided in response tothe media guidance application receiving the user communication 502. Forexample, in response to receiving a text message including the contentof communication 502, “Watching a rock band in an outdoor concert wasthe best!”, the media guidance application may determine thatinformation about an upcoming outdoor concert by the “Red Hot ChiliPeppers” should be presented to the user. The media guidance applicationmay present a pop-up 504 to the user after the user sends, using userinput interface 310, the communication 502, where the pop-up 504includes information about an upcoming outdoor concert, the location ofthe concert (“Samuel Adams Park”), and the expected temperature duringthe concert (“32° F.”). In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may replace default advertisements with targetedadvertisements based on the determined media asset. For example, themedia guidance application may replace default television advertisementsabout carbonated drinks with targeted advertisements about the upcoming“Red Hot Chili Peppers” concert when the user watches television. Pop-up504 may be a confirmation screen, a notification, an advertisement, atext display, a video display, or an icon displayed via display 312. Insome embodiments, pop-up 504 may be a sound that is output throughspeakers 314. Pop-up 504 may include a plurality of information. A usermay be able to cycle through the plurality of information in pop-up 504by using voice commands, text commands, or touch gestures. For example,pop-up 504 may include three advertisements, of which only one appearson display 312. The user may be able to access the advertisements notcurrently on display 312 by using touch gestures like swiping left orright through user input interface 310.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine, usingprocessing circuitry 306, a media asset of the set of media assets thatmatches the attribute of the profile by determining a correlationbetween an attribute of each media asset of the set of media assets andthe attribute of the profile. The media guidance application mayidentify the media asset with the highest correlation of the set ofmedia assets and determine that this media asset may be most relevant tothe attribute of the user profile. As referred to herein, correlationmay be computed based on a similarity metric. The similarity metric mayassign a value to the similarity between two attributes, with a highervalue assigned to attributes that are more similar. The similaritymetric between two attributes may be calculated by comparing thedefinitions of two attributes, their frequency of co-occurrence, anoverlap in the groups these attributes can be applied to, or anycombination of the foregoing. The value of a correlation between anattribute of a media asset and an attribute of a user profile may behigh if the two attributes are similar. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that a user profile indicates an interest inthe band “Red Hot Chili Peppers”. In response to receiving communication502, the media guidance application may determine two candidate lists ofmedia assets, one with videos about rock bands and one with videos aboutoutdoor concerts, in any manner described above or below. The mediaguidance application may then determine a set of media assets present inboth lists comprising videos about rock bands performing outdoorconcerts. The media guidance application may compare an attribute ofthese videos about rock bands performing outdoor concerts to the userprofile attribute. The media guidance application may determine thatvideos featuring one or more members from the band “Red Hot ChiliPeppers” have a higher correlation as they are more similar to the userprofile attribute than videos featuring members from other rock bands.

The media guidance application may identify and provide recommendationsabout a media asset that is related to the determined media asset. Themedia guidance application may determine that a media asset is relatedto the determined media asset based on information retrieved from adatabase such as media guidance data source 418 and/or media contentsource 416. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may dothis in response to determining that the user has already accessed thedetermined media asset. The media guidance application may retrieve dataabout the user's previously accessed media assets from the user profile.For example, the media guidance application may determine that a usercommunication 502 on a social networking website (e.g. a Facebook statusupdate) contains the text “I can't wait to watch the Charlie BrownChristmas movie!” and identify the first and second symbols “CharlieBrown” and “Christmas movie”. The media guidance application may thencreate candidate lists of media assets associated with both symbols anddetermine a set of media assets common to both lists. Of this set, themedia guidance application may determine that the movie “A Charlie BrownChristmas” matches an attribute of the profile. The media guidanceapplication may then determine that the user has previously watched themovie “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. Hence, the media guidance applicationmay present recommendations about media assets related to the movie thatthe user has not previously accessed. For example, the media guidanceapplication may provide a recommendation for the related movie “It's theGreat Pumpkin Charlie Brown!”. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may recommend related media assets (e.g., via pop-up 504) inresponse to determining that the determined media asset cannot beaccessed by the user. The media guidance application may determine themedia asset cannot be accessed based on information from the mediaguidance data source 418. For example, after receiving communication 502(e.g., a user e-mail) stating “I can't wait to watch the Charlie BrownChristmas movie!” and determining that the movie “A Charlie BrownChristmas” matches an attribute of the user profile, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the user cannot access “A Charlie BrownChristmas”, as it is not scheduled for broadcast. The media guidanceapplication may identify the similar animated media asset “It's theGreat Pumpkin Charlie Brown” and recommend this to the user (e.g., byway of pop-up 504).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine alocation of the user and identify a vendor based on the location and themedia asset. As referred to herein, vendor refers to a seller with aphysical storefront whose inventory includes media assets or merchandiserelated to media assets. For example, the vendor may include a bookstore, a music store, a movie store, a movie rental box, a movietheatre, or an event location. The vendor may be identified based on thevendor's geographical proximity to the location of the user. The mediaguidance application may find a vendor such that the distance from theuser location to the vendor is less than a threshold distance, where thethreshold distance may be automatically set or may be modified by theuser. The vendor may further be identified based on whether the vendor'sinventory includes merchandise related to the media asset. For example,after receiving communication 502, the media guidance application maydetermine the user location and use this information to identify a storenear the user that sells merchandise related to “Red Hot Chili Peppers”.The media guidance application may then determine if the store presentlyhas “Red Hot Chili Peppers” merchandise in stock, and recommend thestore to the user if the merchandise is in stock (e.g., by way of pop-up504). In some embodiments, the media guidance application may recommendmore than one vendor to a user and rank the recommendations in order ofdistance from the user or the status of the inventory (e.g., stock isplentiful, store is almost sold out, and the like). Systems and methodsfor identifying vendors based on user location are more fully describedin U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/323,539 filed Dec. 29, 2005, nowabandoned, the entire contents of which this application herebyincorporates by reference herein.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may display, ondisplay 312, pop-up 504 with buttons 506 and 508. The user may selectbuttons 506 and 508 using user input interface 310. The media guidanceapplication may provide options to allow the user to buy tickets for theconcert by selecting the button 506, or close the pop-up 504 byselecting the button 508. Closing the pop-up 504 by selecting the button508 may return the user to the previous screen. It is understood thatpop-up 504 may be implemented as a notification, indication, or messagedepending on which type of user equipment 402, 404, or 406 that themedia guidance application provides the information. For example, if theuser device is a television, the media guidance application may providethe information as a message notification in a corner of the screen.

In some embodiments, button 506 may be a “like” button and button 508may be a “dislike” button. The media guidance application may determinethat a user likes information provided in pop-up 504 if a user selectsthe “like” button 506. The media guidance application may then providesimilar information to the user in the future. The media guidanceapplication may determine that the user did not like the information inpop-up 504 if a user selects the “dislike” button 508. The mediaguidance application may responsively remove the information from pop-up504, and/or not provide similar information to the user in the future,or may reduce the likelihood of providing similar information in thefuture.

In some embodiments, the user may select button 506 to share theinformation with the user's friends. The media guidance application may,in response to determining the user selected button 506, use thecommunications network 414 to send the information to the user's socialmedia page so it can be seen by the user's friends. The media guidanceapplication may also create a user communication 502 with theinformation from the pop-up 504 when the user selects button 506. Theuser may then send this user communication 502 created by the mediaguidance application to a friend or share it through a social networkingwebsite.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receivecommunication 502 from the user through user input interface 310 asdescribed above. The media guidance application may identify a symbol ofthe communication 502 that is subject to a plurality of candidateinterpretations. The media guidance application may have to determinethe user's intended interpretation of the symbol to be able to provideaccurate targeted information to the user. As referred to herein,candidate interpretations refer to interpretations of the symbol thatare accurate, but not necessarily intended by the user. For example, themedia guidance application may receive a text message similar tocommunication 502, except with text stating “Michelangelo is great!”.“Michelangelo” is a name that may refer to either a painter or a TeenageMutant Ninja Turtle. Hence, the media guidance application may determinethat Michelangelo is a symbol with a plurality of candidateinterpretations. While both candidate interpretations of the symbol“Michelangelo” are correct, the user may only intend one of the possibleinterpretations to apply in the context of the user's communication 502.The user's intended interpretation may be determined by the mediaguidance application by using information from the user's profile.

A media guidance application may determine candidate interpretations fora symbol by querying a reference (e.g. a dictionary or an encyclopedia)for the symbol. The media guidance application may query a localreference stored in storage circuitry 308, or a remote referenceaccessed through communications network 414. The media guidanceapplication may also store, in storage circuitry 308, a list of commonlyencountered symbols with multiple candidate interpretations. The mediaguidance application may determine that a symbol is subject to aplurality of candidate interpretations by determining that multiplemedia assets in a database, stored in storage circuitry 308, correspondto the symbol.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may identify, usingprocessing circuitry 306, each candidate interpretation of the pluralityof candidate interpretations. For example, upon receiving the text“Michelangelo is great” and identifying the symbol “Michelangelo” hasmultiple candidate interpretations, the media guidance application mayidentify each candidate interpretation in the database that may be apossible interpretation for “Michelangelo”.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve, usingcommunications network 414, a profile of the user from a local storage308, or a remote storage through communications network 414. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may compare an attribute ofthe profile to each candidate interpretation of the plurality ofcandidate interpretations. For example, the media guidance applicationmay determine that the user's social media webpage (e.g., MySpaceprofile page) lists “TMNT” (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) in its“Interests” category. The media guidance application may select “TMNT”as the attribute from the user profile. The media guidance applicationmay determine if any of the plurality of candidate interpretationscontaining “Michelangelo” are associated with the user profile attributeof “TMNT”. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may useinformation available on the Internet through communications network414, (e.g., located at media guidance data source 418, or media contentsource 416) to determine if a candidate interpretation matches theattribute. The media guidance application may use these sources todetermine if a candidate interpretation is associated with a mediaasset. For example, the media guidance application may query the mediaguidance data source 418 through the communications network 414 todetermine that Michelangelo the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle isassociated with the acronym “TMNT” as this character was in a moviecalled “TMNT”. Also, the media guidance application may determine thatMichelangelo, the Italian painter, is associated with the Sistine Chapelas he painted the chapel. The media guidance application may use thisinformation to determine if an attribute of the user profile matches acandidate interpretation. In this case, the user profile attribute“TMNT” will match the candidate interpretation of Michelangelo from themedia asset Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine, usingprocessing circuitry 306, a meaning of the symbol based on thecomparison. The media guidance application may determine the meaning ofthe symbol is one of the candidate interpretations based on determiningthat the chosen candidate interpretation matches an attribute of theprofile of the user. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that the user profile contains an attribute “TMNT” thatmatches the candidate interpretation Michelangelo, the Teenage MutantNinja Turtle. The media guidance application may use this information todetermine that the meaning of the symbol “Michelangelo” is a TeenageMutant Ninja Turtle.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may update theprofile to include information based on the determined meaning. Asreferred to herein, information refers to data associated with a mediaasset. Information may include media asset recommendations, offers forpurchasing tickets to access media assets, event recommendations,trivia, cast details, plot details, and a list of the user's friends whoare interested in a media asset. Information may also include the timeand date associated with the media asset, a weather associated with themedia asset, and a location associated with the media asset. This userprofile may be used by the media guidance application in the future todetermine an attribute of a user profile. In some embodiments, this userprofile may be used by the media guidance application to generate futurerecommendations for the user. For example, after receiving communication502 including the text of “Michelangelo is great!”, the media guidanceapplication may generate for display pop-up 504 on the user equipment500 by way of display 312, with text displaying information about ticketprices for the movie “TMNT” at a local movie theatre. In someembodiments, the recommendation may replace a default advertisement thatwould have been displayed to the user. For example, when the usersearches for local movie theatre on a search engine, a targetedadvertisement may be displayed on display 312 to the user that displaysinformation about “TMNT” playing at a local movie theatre. A user mayalso receive an audio recommendation about the movie through speakers314.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine acorrelation between an attribute of each candidate interpretation of theplurality of candidate interpretations and the attribute of the profileto identify the candidate interpretation with the highest correlation.The correlation may be determined using any manner described above orbelow. The media guidance application may determine the meaning of thesymbol based on the candidate interpretation with the highestcorrelation. This will allow the media guidance application to determinea meaning of the symbol that is relevant to the attribute in the userprofile.

In some embodiments, each candidate interpretation may be associatedwith a media asset. In these embodiments, determining a meaning of thesymbol may comprise determining the media asset that the symbol refersto. For example, a user may send, using user input interface 310, acommunication 502 (e.g., a tweet on Twitter) stating “I loved watchingthe Oscars.” Because the Oscars are an award show that is presentedevery year, the media guidance application may determine that there aremultiple recorded award shows that the symbol “Oscars” could correspondto. The media guidance application may identify that “Oscars” could havecandidate interpretations of Oscars 2000, Oscars, 2001, Oscars 2002, andso on. Here, each candidate interpretation is associated with abroadcast recording of the Oscars award show. The media guidanceapplication may identify a user profile attribute, through the user'sviewing history, of having watched a re-run of Oscars 2012 last week.Hence, after the attributes of the candidate interpretations have beencompared to an attribute of the user profile, the meaning of “Oscars”may be determined to be the Oscars 2012 broadcast.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine, usingprocessing circuitry 306, a location of the user and identify a vendorbased on the location and inventory at the vendor, as described above.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart 600 of illustrative steps involved in providinginformation to a user based on a first symbol and a second symbol, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. It should be notedthat the process 600 or any step thereof could be performed on, orprovided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 3-5 . For example,process 600 may be executed by processing circuitry 304 (FIG. 3 ) asinstructed by processing circuitry implemented on user equipment 402,404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4 ) in order to provide information to a user. Inaddition, one or more steps of process 600 may be incorporated into orcombined with one or more steps of any other process or embodiment.

At 602, the media guidance application receives, using processingcircuitry 306, a communication (e.g., communication 502) from the user.The communication may be an SMS, MMS, e-mail, voice message, or anyother type of communication as described above. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application receives the communication 502 through thecommunications network 414. For example, the media guidance applicationmay be implemented on a television set-top box, and the usercommunication 502 may be sent by the user on a cell phone. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may be implemented on thesame user device 402, 404, or 406 as the user device the user uses tosend the communication 502.

At 604, the media guidance application identifies a first symbol and asecond symbol of the communication 502. The media guidance applicationmay identify the first symbol and second symbol by using heuristicsstored in the storage circuitry 308. For example, the media guidanceapplication may use a heuristic that nouns and associated adjectiveswill form a symbol. If a user sends, using user input interface 310, ane-mail with the text “I like listening to loud male voices sing softromantic songs,” the media guidance application may use heuristicsstored in the storage circuitry 308 and processing circuitry 306 toidentify “loud male voices” and “soft romantic songs” as the first andsecond symbol. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayconvert the communication 502 to a textual representation beforeidentifying the first symbol and the second symbol. For example, if theuser communication 502 is a voicemail left on a friend's answeringmachine, the media guidance application may transcribe the text of thevoicemail before identifying the first symbol and the second symbol. Insome embodiments, the media guidance application may identify more thantwo symbols of the communication 502.

At 606, the media guidance application may identify, using processingcircuitry 306, a first candidate list of media assets that the firstsymbol may define. The media guidance application may use a databasethat contains media assets with tags associated with each of the mediaassets to identify the first candidate list. The media guidanceapplication may compare the tags associated with each of the mediaassets in the database to the first symbol, and add media assets to thefirst candidate list based on the result of the comparison. In someembodiments, the tags may be associated with the media assets by themedia guidance application based on information parsed from user reviewsof media assets. In some embodiments, the tags may be associated withthe media assets based on information provided by the media contentsource 416 or media guidance data source 418. The database may becontinuously updated by the media guidance application based oncommunications from sources 416 or 418 through the communicationsnetwork 414. For example, if a user communication 502 contains thesymbol “handsome actor”, the media guidance application may identify afirst candidate list of media assets, each of which has user reviewstalking about the handsome actor in the respective media asset.

At 608, the media guidance application may identify, using processingcircuitry 306, a second candidate list of media assets that the secondsymbol may define. The media guidance application may identify thesecond candidate list in the same manner as described with respect to606.

The media guidance application may identify any number of candidatelists of media assets, such that each candidate list of media assets isassociated with an identified symbol. For example, if the media guidanceapplication identifies three symbols, it may also identify threecandidate lists of media assets.

At 610, the media guidance application may determine, using processingcircuitry 306, a set of media assets identified in both the firstcandidate list and the second candidate list. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may determine that a media asset in the setof media assets is available from multiple sources. Nevertheless, themedia asset may only appear once in the set of media assets. Forexample, the first candidate list may contain a movie being broadcast ona television channel, while the second candidate list may contain amovie available for streaming online. The media guidance application maydetermine that the movie appears on both candidate lists, and add themovie to the set of media assets. The media guidance application maylater provide information about the movie being available from twosources to the user. The media guidance application may determine a setof media assets that appear in all candidate lists of media assets ifthe media guidance application identified more than two candidate listsof media assets.

At 612, the media guidance application may access, using processingcircuitry 306, a profile of the user. This profile may be available onthe Internet, and the media guidance application may access it usingcommunications network 414. The profile may be created by the mediaguidance application by combining user information from a variety ofsources. For example, the media guidance application may access aprofile of the user that is created by combining information from theuser's social media webpage (e.g., a user profile on Facebook) with alist of television shows the user has watched in the last month.

At 614, the media guidance application may determine a media asset ofthe set of media assets that matches an attribute of the profile. Themedia guidance application may select an attribute of a plurality ofattributes of the user profile by ranking the user profile attributesand then selecting the most highly ranked attribute. For example, themedia guidance application may rank a user profile comprised of mediaassets the user has accessed in chronological order, so media assets theuser has recently accessed are ranked higher than media assets accessedearlier. In another example, the media guidance application may rankmost frequently accessed media assets higher. In another example, themedia guidance application may rank media assets accessed by the mostusers higher. This ranking will allow the media guidance application toselect an attribute of the user profile that is relevant to the user'scurrent preferences. In some embodiments, if the set of media assetsdoes not contain a media asset that matches the most highly rankedattribute of the profile, the next ranked attribute of the profile maybe selected and compared by the media guidance application to each ofthe set of media assets. In some embodiments, if multiple media assetshave the same ranking, the tie may be broken by the media guidanceapplication assigning random ranks to the tied media assets.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may compare eachmedia asset in the set of media assets to a plurality of attributes. Themedia guidance application may calculate, using processing circuitry306, a correlation associated with each media asset. A highercorrelation indicates the media asset matches the user profile attributeto a greater degree than a media asset with a lower correlation. Themedia guidance application may then select the media asset with thehighest correlation to provide information to the user about withrespect to 616.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatmore than one media asset matches an attribute of the profile, andprovide information about more than one media asset to the user withrespect to 616.

At 616, the media guidance application provides information relating tothe media asset to the user (e.g., by way of pop-up 504, displayed byway of display 312). In some embodiments, the media guidance applicationmay provide the information in response to receiving the usercommunication 502, in the form of a pop-up 504 or in any other form asdescribed in relation to FIG. 5 . In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may provide the information by replacing a defaultadvertisement with a targeted advertisement at a later time. The mediaguidance application may provide information to the user on any of theuser devices 402, 404, or 406 that are associated with the user.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 6 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 6 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increate thespeed of the system or method.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart 700 of illustrative steps involved in providinginformation to a user based on a symbol that is subject to a pluralityof candidate interpretations in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. It should be noted that the process 700 or any step thereofcould be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS.3-5 . For example, process 700 may be executed by processing circuitry304 (FIG. 3 ) as instructed by processing circuitry implemented on userequipment 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4 ) in order to provide informationto a user. In addition, one or more steps of process 700 may beincorporated into, or combined with, one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment.

At 702, the media guidance application receives a communication (e.g.,communication 502, input by way of user input interface 310) from auser, as described with respect to 602.

At 704, the media guidance application identifies, using processingcircuitry 306, a symbol of the communication 502 that is subject to aplurality of candidate interpretations. The media guidance applicationmay determine that the symbol is subject to a plurality of candidateinterpretations based on a comparison of the symbol to media assets in adatabase. The media guidance application may compare the symbol to themedia assets in the database as described in relation to 606. In someembodiments, the symbol may be a homonym.

The media guidance application may identify more than one symbol subjectto a plurality of candidate interpretations. The media guidanceapplication may execute steps 706-714 for each identified symbol. Insome embodiments, the media guidance application may execute steps706-714 for the first symbol, and then the second symbol, and so onuntil all the steps have been executed for all symbols. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may execute the steps foreach symbol in parallel.

At 706, the media guidance application identifies, using processingcircuitry 306, each candidate interpretation of the plurality ofcandidate interpretations. The media guidance application may create alist of candidate interpretations based on the results of the comparisonof the symbol with the media assets in the database. In someembodiments, each candidate interpretation may be associated with amedia asset. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayconsolidate candidate interpretations. For example, if the symbol is“CSI”, the media guidance application may identify several candidateinterpretations corresponding to episodes of “CSI: Miami” and severalcandidate interpretations corresponding to episodes of “CSI: Crime SceneInvestigation”. The media guidance application may determine that thesecandidate interpretations can be consolidated to generate a list of twocandidate interpretations: “CSI: Miami” and “CSI: Crime SceneInvestigation”.

At 708, the media guidance application retrieves a profile of the user,as described with respect to 612.

At 710, the media guidance application compares, using processingcircuitry 306, an attribute of the profile to each candidateinterpretation of the plurality of candidate interpretations. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may do this as describedwith respect to 614.

At 712, the media guidance application determines a meaning of thesymbol based on the comparison. Using a candidate interpretation from710 that matches the attribute, the media guidance application maydetermine that the meaning of the symbol is the candidateinterpretation. In some embodiments, if more than one candidateinterpretation matches the attribute, the media guidance system maycalculate correlation values for each of the matching candidateinterpretations and select the candidate interpretation with the highestcorrelation as the meaning of the symbol.

At 714, the media guidance application updates, using processingcircuitry 306, the profile to include information based on thedetermined meaning. The media guidance application may update theprofile to include a meaning of the symbol that can be easily accessedthe next time the media guidance application identifies the symbol in auser communication 502. For example, the media guidance application mayreceive a user communication (e.g., communication 502) containing thesymbol “Go Giants!” and determine that this symbol could refer to twosports teams—the San Francisco Giants and the New York Giants. The mediaguidance application may then use a location attribute from the user'sprofile or a user device 402, 404, or 406 that states that the userlives in San Francisco and compares this attribute to each of thecandidate interpretations of sports teams. The media guidanceapplication may update the user profile to indicate that when usercommunication 502 contains the symbol “Go Giants!”, the user isreferring to the baseball team San Francisco Giants and not the footballteam New York Giants. The updated user profile may be used by the mediaguidance application to provide information to the user as describedwith respect to 616.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 7 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 7 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increate thespeed of the system or method.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart 800 of illustrative steps for providinginformation to a user based on a communication 502 including twosymbols, at least one of which may have multiple candidateinterpretations, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.Flowchart 800 shows one possible embodiment of the present embodimentcombining features of flowchart 600 and flowchart 700. It should benoted that the process 800 or any step thereof could be performed on, orprovided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 3-5 . For example,process 800 may be executed by processing circuitry 304 (FIG. 3 ) asinstructed by processing circuitry implemented on user equipment 402,404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4 ) in order to provide information to a user. Inaddition, one or more steps of process 800 may be incorporated into orcombined with one or more steps of any other process or embodiment.

At 802, the media guidance application receives user communication(e.g., communication 502, received by way of user input interface 310)as described with respect to 602. At 804, the media guidance applicationidentifies a first symbol and a second symbol as described with respectto 604. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may identifymore than two symbols of the communication.

At 806, the media guidance application determines, using processingcircuitry 306, if either or both of the first symbol and the secondsymbol have a plurality of candidate interpretations. The media guidanceapplication may determine that either the first symbol or the secondsymbol has a plurality of candidate interpretations as described withrespect to 704. In some embodiments, the media guidance application maydetermine if any of more than two identified symbols are subject to aplurality of candidate interpretations.

If the result of the determination at 806 is that a symbol has aplurality of candidate interpretations, the media guidance applicationidentifies all candidate interpretations at 808, as described withrespect to 706. The media guidance application then determines a meaningfor the symbol and updates a user profile. This may be done by the mediaguidance application through the process described with respect to 708,710, 712, and 714. The media guidance application then returns to 806 todetermine if any of the remaining symbols have multiple candidateinterpretations. Once a meaning has been determined for all candidateinterpretations, the media guidance application can move on to 812.

If the result of the determination at 808 is that all symbols have adetermined meaning or only one candidate interpretation, the mediaguidance application identifies candidate lists of media assets for eachsymbol with respect to 812, as described with respect to 606 and 608. At814, the media guidance application determines media assets common toeach list, as described in 610. At 816, the media guidance applicationchooses a media asset based on a comparison with a user profile, asdescribed with respect to 612 and 614. At 818, the media guidanceapplication provides information (e.g., by using pop-up 504, which maybe displayed via display 312 or audibly transmitted by way of speakers314) about the media asset to the user, as described with respect to616.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 8 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 8 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increate thespeed of the system or method.

Although processes for providing information to a user based on a firstsymbol and a second symbol have been described in reference to only twosymbols, it is understood that the processes may provide information toa user based on more than two symbols. Though processes for providinginformation to a user based on a symbol with a plurality of candidateinterpretations have been described in reference to one symbol, it isunderstood that the processes may provide information to a user based onmore than one symbol, each with a plurality of candidateinterpretations.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may beapplied to any other embodiment herein, and flowcharts or examplesrelating to one embodiment may be combined with any other embodiment ina suitable manner, done in different orders, or done in parallel. Inaddition, the systems and methods described herein may be performed inreal time. It should also be noted, the systems and/or methods describedabove may be applied to, or used in accordance with, other systemsand/or methods.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, by input/outputcircuitry, a communication from a user; accessing a schedule from amedia guidance data source; identifying a first media asset based on afirst interpretation of the communication and a second media asset basedon a second interpretation of the communication; determining, based onthe schedule, that the first media asset is scheduled to be availableearlier than the second media asset; and based on determining that thefirst media asset is scheduled to be available earlier than the secondmedia asset, providing a recommendation for the first media asset to theuser.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: based on the firstmedia asset being scheduled to be available earlier than the secondmedia asset, providing the first media asset.
 3. The method of claim 1,further comprising: determining that the communication from the userincludes a name and an indication that the name refers to a person; andbased on the determining that the communication from the user includesthe name and the indication that the name refers to the person,identifying the first interpretation and second interpretation for thecommunication from the user by identifying a first person's name and asecond person's name that match the name from the communication from theuser.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: determining whetherthe first person's name is associated with the first media asset that isscheduled to be available for the user; and in response to determiningthat the first person's name is associated with the first media assetthat is scheduled to be available for the user, adding the firstperson's name to the first interpretation.
 5. The method of claim 1,wherein providing the recommendation to the user comprises: determiningthat the first interpretation of the communication from the usercomprises a title of the first media asset; identifying the second mediaasset that has a title similar to the title of the first media asset andis scheduled to be available earlier; and providing informationindicative of the second media asset to the user.
 6. The method of claim1, wherein providing the recommendation for the first media assetcomprises varying a presentation scheme of an identifier of the firstmedia asset, wherein varying the presentation scheme comprises at leastone of modifying a color scheme or modifying size of text.
 7. A systemcomprising: input/output circuitry configured to: receive acommunication from a user; and control circuitry configured to: access aschedule from a media guidance data source; identify a first media assetbased on a first interpretation of the communication and a second mediaasset based on a second interpretation of the communication; determine,based on the schedule, that the first media asset is scheduled to beavailable earlier than the second media asset; wherein the input/outputcircuitry is further configured to: based on determining that the firstmedia asset is scheduled to be available earlier than the second mediaasset, provide a recommendation for the first media asset to the user.8. The system of claim 7, wherein the input/output circuitry is furtherconfigured to: based on the first media asset being scheduled to beavailable earlier than the second media asset, provide the first mediaasset.
 9. The system of claim 7, wherein the control circuitry isfurther configured to: determine that the communication from the userincludes a name and an indication that the name refers to a person; andbased on the determining that the communication from the user includesthe name and the indication that the name refers to the person, identifythe first interpretation and second interpretation for the communicationfrom the user by identifying a first person's name and a second person'sname that match the name from the communication from the user.
 10. Thesystem of claim 9, wherein the control circuitry is further configuredto: determine whether the first person's name is associated with thefirst media asset that is scheduled to be available for the user; and inresponse to determining that the first person's name is associated withthe first media asset that is scheduled to be available for the user,adding the first person's name to the first interpretation.
 11. Thesystem of claim 7, wherein the control circuitry is configured toidentify the first media asset based on the first interpretation of thecommunication and the second media asset based on a secondinterpretation of the communication by: determining that the firstinterpretation of the communication from the user comprises a title ofthe first media asset; identifying the second media asset that has atitle similar to the title of the first media asset and is scheduled tobe available earlier; and wherein the input/output circuitry isconfigured to provide the recommendation by providing informationindicative of the second media asset to the user.
 12. The system ofclaim 7, wherein the input/output circuitry is configured to provide therecommendation for the first media asset by varying a presentationscheme of an identifier of the first media asset, wherein varying thepresentation scheme comprises at least one of modifying a color schemeor modifying size of text.
 13. A non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprising: instructions that when executed by an input/output circuitrycause the input/output circuitry to: receive a communication from auser; and instructions that when executed by a control circuitry causethe control circuitry to: access a schedule from a media guidance datasource; identify a first media asset based on a first interpretation ofthe communication and a second media asset based on a secondinterpretation of the communication; determine, based on the schedule,that the first media asset is scheduled to be available earlier than thesecond media asset; and instructions that when executed by theinput/output circuitry further cause the input/output circuitry to:based on determining that the first media asset is scheduled to beavailable earlier than the second media asset, provide a recommendationfor the first media asset to the user.
 14. The non-transitory computerreadable medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions that whenexecuted by the input/output circuitry causes the input/output circuitryto based on the first media asset being scheduled to be availableearlier than the second media asset, provide the first media asset. 15.The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, furthercomprising instructions that when executed by the control circuitrycauses the control circuitry to: determine that the communication fromthe user includes a name and an indication that the name refers to aperson; and based on the determining that the communication from theuser includes the name and the indication that the name refers to theperson, identify the first interpretation and second interpretation forthe communication from the user by identifying a first and a secondperson's name that match the name.
 16. The non-transitory computerreadable medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions that whenexecuted by the input/output circuitry causes the input/output circuitryto: determine whether the first person's name is associated with thefirst media asset that is scheduled to be available for the user; and inresponse to determining that the first person's name is associated withthe first media asset that is scheduled to be available for the user,add the first person's name to the first interpretation.
 17. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein theinstructions that cause the control circuitry to identify the firstmedia asset based on the first interpretation of the communication andthe second media asset based on a second interpretation of thecommunication cause the control circuitry to: determine that the firstinterpretation of the communication from the user comprises a title ofthe first media asset; identify the second media asset that has a titlesimilar to the title of the first media asset and is scheduled to beavailable earlier; and wherein the instructions that cause theinput/output circuitry to provide the recommendation cause theinput/output circuitry to provide information indicative of the secondmedia asset to the user.
 18. The non-transitory computer readable mediumof claim 13, wherein the instructions that cause the input/outputcircuitry to provide the recommendation for the first media asset causethe input/output circuitry to vary a presentation scheme of anidentifier of the first media asset, wherein varying the presentationscheme comprises at least one of modifying a color scheme or modifyingsize of text.